252 Linnean Society. [June 21, 



JEcidium Senecionis which accompanies the Senecio vulgaris, and ap- 

 pears to him to extend to a species of Epilobium ; and Perisporium 

 vulgare ? &.ttQ.ck\ng Aristotelia in winter. Of Aristotelia he observes 

 that although it is said to be exstipulate, he has met with several spe- 

 cimens in which the stipulse were largely developed. Of introduced 

 plants, the common water-cress grows by cart-loads in and about the 

 streams for several miles round Wellington ; and Mimulus lutens is also 

 spreading itself along the streams and over the swampy places behind 

 the town. He adds that he is very desirous of introducing some of 

 the British plants which would probably thrive, such as Stellaria 

 Holostea and Antirrhinum Cymbalaria ; and states that he brought out 

 with him from England Vallisneria spiralis, of which he has speci- 

 mens intended for the Botanic Garden at Melbourne, from whence 

 it may perhajDS make its way to Sydney and Hobart Town. Mr. 

 Ralph concludes his sketch by mentioning a species of Nitella (N. 

 translucens ?) found in a rapid stream about five-and-twenty miles 

 from Wellington, 



Read also a Letter from John M'^Clelland, Esq., F.L.S., to 

 R. Brown, Esq.,V.P.L.S,, dated Calcutta, i5th of January, 1853, and 

 accompanying a large packet of notes and sketches by the late 

 William Griffith, Esq., F.L.S., on the development of the Ovulum 

 in Santalum, Osyris, Loranthus and Viscum, as well as in several 

 other genera belonging to different families of plants. These papers 

 having been carefully examined, and compared with Mr. Griffith's 

 memoirs published in the ' Linnean Transactions,' it was found that 

 the bulk of them consisted of the materials from which he had con- 

 structed his memoir "On Santalum, Osyris, Loranthus and Viscum," 

 printed in the nineteenth volume of the Society's ' Transactions.' 

 In that paper he has given from these materials, in greater or less 

 detail, all that iie himself considered necessary to the elucidation 

 of his subject ; and it does not appear (as might indeed be ex- 

 pected) that anything could be advantageously added to what he 

 himself communicated to the Society. There are, however, some 

 notes on the genus Modeccopsis, of which the characters only have 

 appeared in our ' Proceedings' (vol. i, p. 171), and which in some 

 of the sketches is named Dactylium vagum ; on another plant pre- 

 sumed by Mr. Griffith to belong to Santalacece ; and on various 

 Cucurbitaceous plants, affi)rding some new and unpublished facts on 

 the development of their several ovula, which it was thought de- 

 sirable to lay before the Society, as supplementary to Mr. Griffith's 

 communications on that important subject. 



